Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Warner Brothers bought me out.
"Is there something I can help you with?" the headmaster helpfully from behind them.
Ron, Hermione, and Harry jumped. They had been trying to guess the password into the headmaster's office for the last five minutes, and they were all worried that a professor would come by and give them detention. So far they had exhausted every candy sold at Honey Dukes and most of the muggle candies Hermione and Harry could think of.
"Yes," Harry said, the first to recover. "We need to talk with you."
"Maybe we should go into my office," Dumbledore said with a trace of a smile. "Three Double-You Surprise."
Harry and Hermione were surprised. "I've never heard of that candy," Harry admitted as the gargoyle stepped aside.
He suddenly noticed that Ron had paled. "Is that some candy the twins came up with?" Harry whispered.
"Don't… ask…" Ron replied, ashen.
The three students followed Dumbledore into his office. Harry quickly grew bewildered. The office looked completely normal – Fawkes sat quietly on his perch, the sorting hat was perched on a low shelf, and various gadgets and artifacts littered the room – but there were two oddities. There was a pair of schisms, several meters across, on each side of the room. Inside of them looked to be an exact duplicate of Dumbledore's office. But each duplicate seemed to be off somehow. The angles didn't seem right, the colors seemed to be a bit off, and even Fawkes looked a bit different.
Dumbledore chuckled and walked through the schism to the right. Immediately, his form distorted – his body looked a little different. A little too tall, a little too skinny, and his light robes looked a bit closer to aquamarine instead of royal blue.
After a slight hesitation, Harry, Ron, and Hermione followed the headmaster. As soon as they slipped through the odd rip, the room straightened into focus. But Dumbledore didn't seem content to go through just one schism. Inside the new room were two more rifts and Dumbledore chose the left this time. Confused, Harry followed the headmaster. Right, left, left, right, left, right, right… Harry soon lost track of where they were at.
"Please have a seat," Dumbledore said, sitting down at his desk… or at least one of his desks at any rate.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione did as he asked, and Hermione quickly told him about what they found. "… And so You-Know-Who must want to reawaken the 'shadow legion' like Ayr feared. He's got two of the three stones and all he needs is the last one and he'll be able to do it!"
Dumbledore, instead of appearing worried, simply smiled. "Did you mean this one?" the headmaster asked, proffering a sparkling blue crystal to the trio.
"You were right, Ron," Harry said absent-mindedly, feeling the benign smooth texture of the large gem.
"Hard to believe this gem could be so dangerous," Hermione said, looking at the sapphire.
"Dumbledore?" came Flitwick's voice.
All four turned to see Flitwick stride in Dumbledore's door to the room to their left. But instead of his normal squat self, he looked around 9 feet tall, with pale purple skin and bright yellow hair.
"Ingenious," Harry heard the charms teacher mutter, before calling out through the portal at them, "Dumbledore, there are several masked figures approaching the castle!"
Dumbledore didn't appear to be worried, even when the door to his office was blown open again several seconds later and seven death eaters stormed in. Harry couldn't tell who any of them were, not only because they were masked, but because each looked like there were reflected from funhouse mirrors.
Flitwick whirled around and held his wand out defensively.
"Don't," growled a voice that Harry found oddly familiar, but couldn't recognize through the various reflections of reality in the rooms.
Flitwick didn't lower his guard for a second. The same death eater said, "Stand aside. We're not here for you, fool."
Flitwick's distorted face twisted into a look of intense concentration and the charms teacher stood his ground.
"Very well," hissed the voice. "Expelliarmus!"
Flitwick blocked the spell and shot back a pair of stunning charms.
Harry watched as the two figures dueled. Even through the distortions, the battle looked spectacular. Beams of every imaginable color shot every which way, and Harry couldn't help but watch the most powerful and evenly matched duel he had ever seen. Wandless spells were cast even while complex incantations were shouted. Spectacular blocks; spectacular dodges. Half the spells Harry had never even heard about. He now knew why Flitwick was a dueling champion earlier in his life.
Finally, the death eater cast a Stupefy spell, but not at Flitwick. Instead, it was shot at one of the schisms. It bounced around, reality to reality, office to office, and after countless iterations, it emerged again from the other portal and hit Flitwick from behind. Harry gasped as the charms professor fell.
"Avada Kedav…" one of the other death eaters began.
"NO!" shouted the leader. "We are not here for him, idiot! Crucio!"
Harry watched as the death eater writhed in pain from the leaders retribution, silently wondering at the cruelty death eaters could show even their brethren.
One of the other death eaters pointed at Dumbledore, and walked towards the schism.
"No!" shouted the leader again, and sat down on the ground.
"What's he doing?" Harry quietly asked the headmaster.
"He's figuring out the puzzle," Dumbledore quietly answered.
Harry looked a little worried at this. He was sure that no death eater could manage to follow the exact path they had taken – after all, he couldn't remember and he had actually been led through at one point. He began to try to do the math – 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x… but gave up, deciding it was as close enough to impossible.
Apparently the death eater sitting on the ground had a different solution, and it seemed Dumbledore thought he was on the right track. The masked wizard shifted in and out of focus, changing color and dimension. Harry gasped as the schisms disappeared and the death eaters shimmered into place right in front of them.
"Hello headmaster," the leader said caustically, getting up from his sitting position. Harry now knew who the voice belonged to.
"Hello, Severus," Dumbledore calmly replied.
---
Hooboy! I've decided to end every chapter from here on out with a cliffhanger. Well, maybe not. Let's see… next chapter I should probably kill off Severus, let Voldemort summon the legion, and have Harry miss his O.W.L.s… I think that sounds good :)
Erinamation: Hmmm…. :)
Katani: Ditzes… yeah, that's probably as good of word as any for the two of them.
MicroChick: Haha, I never thought of the gem being inside Harry. Hmmm… I'm thinking Harry Potter and E.R. crossover. "Quick, Pomfrey, I need 50 cc's of Hydroxyropyl Methylcellulose, stat! We've got to get this sapphire out of him, pronto!" About Voldemort wanting to kill Harry – you're right, I haven't got to it. But I'm not going to this story. Oh well.
Chaser: That's ok – at least I know you're reading it :)
Myrhfire: :)
Castus: Thanks!
Rathien: Yeah, my average chapter is a lot shorter than my other stories, hovering around 1,300 words. I'd feel guilty, but I'm too lazy right now…
Hrei-siesn: Ouch! That hurt! '…you not being sure how the romances are supposed to go…' Ouch! Actually, I'm trying to be realistic. I don't think 15 year olds really have it together, especially on the romance front. Is it that hard to imagine Harry thinking about dumping a person but not really knowing why? Ok, I'm going to sulk in the corner now.
Feel free… *sniff* … free to review… *sniffle*
